for love of a park

Last weekend in honor of Earth Day I captained the cleanup effort out at our sweet little neighborhood park. About ten or so neighbors came out to lend a hand with spreading mulch and planting annuals in bare planters.

A few months ago I started volunteering as park steward, which basically means picking up litter while out on dog walks (there’s ALWAYS litter, more’s the pity!) and also tending to the native species garden that had been growing a little long in the tooth over the past couple of years.

With parents who fill their basement with grow lights and backyard with everything from vegetables to propagated wild irises and a sister who’s a master gardener, I’ve got some green in my blood, though I’m still learning. So with suburbia-bred trepidation, I attended my first local garden club meeting a couple months back and was delighted to find a bunch of unpretentious folks who simply like to grow stuff and share what they know.

I’m more grateful thank I can say for the the new friends who are mentoring and grounding me in a city life I’ve struggled for some time to feel rightly rooted in.

Rainy day seed starts

Today was meant to be bed-building workday out at Global Garden, but, since the weather refused to cooperate, I hung indoors with whistling radiators and got my green on making floral seed starts for alleyway guerilla gardening.

Yesterday I walked down along the L track fenceline and planted three types of morning glory seedlings (blue, blue, pink), shook several jumbo wildflower seed packs over rocky and dubious soil. I’m uncertain as well how the new starts will fare on the back railing– tied down though they be against stray gusts and birdfeet.

The busy visitors, invited by feeders, have been making a meal of my windowbox lettuces and repeatedly turning Signor Oregano on his poor head. He begs that they kindly desist. Grazie mille!